We will explore a pluralistic histories of the arts, using five case studies rather than an exhaustive survey. We begin with classical Greece and move through imperial China, colonial Americas, Europe during the Industrial Revolution and Modernist Europe. The organizational theme is east-west and north-south crosscultural encounters. Each case study will foreground examples of the visual, literary, plastic and performing arts in a critical and comparative manner. This is a lecture course that meets three times a week. The requirements of the course include weekly reading assignments, short essays and a final examination.